How does a novice photographer understand shutter

Sometimes we will find photos blurred by shaking hands, or we will see some interesting photographic effects, such as road lighting tracks, starry sky tracks, special lighting graffiti and so on. These are all related to the camera shutter. So, what is the shutter that a novice photographer must learn? Let's have a look!

What is a shutter?

The camera shutter, like the aperture, is also an element to control the light entering the camera. The shutter controls the amount of light entering with time. The shutter is actually the "curtain" in front of the photosensitive element/film. The longer it is turned on, the more light the camera enters.

Shutter speed

After the shutter is opened, the light will pass through the aperture and enter the photosensitive element of the camera. The so-called shutter speed actually represents how long the light is allowed to enter the camera. "Shutter speed" and "exposure time" actually mean the same thing. The faster the shutter speed, the shorter the exposure time, the slower the shutter speed and the longer the exposure time.

The shutter speed of modern cameras can be controlled as short as 1/8000 seconds. Shutter speed is directly related to the amount of light entering the camera. When the exposure time is doubled, the amount of light entering the camera is doubled.

Application of high-speed shutter and slow shutter

The most direct influence of shutter on a photo is exposure. The shutter speed is slow and the amount of light entering increases. Under the same aperture ISO condition, the picture will be brighter, and vice versa. In addition, by changing the shutter speed, it displays "freeze" or creates "dynamic blur".

The most common use of slow shutter, such as shooting waterfalls or night scenes, can produce unique effects. In general, we will try to avoid using slow shutter to prevent dynamic blur caused by hand shock.

Safety shutter

What is a "safety shutter"? Theoretically, it can be guaranteed that when we shoot with a camera, the shooting quality will not be affected by hand shaking.

In fact, this safety shutter does not need any advanced mathematical formula. We just need to remember that "1/ used lens focal length" is probably a safety shutter.

Simply put, when you use a 50mm focal length lens, you need a shutter speed higher than 1/50, so that you can avoid image blur caused by hand shake.

Pay attention to the two sets of numbers on the upper left of the display. 125 means the shutter speed1125 seconds, and F2.8 is the aperture value.

The skills to keep the photos clear are (1) keeping your hands as steady as possible, (2) using a tripod, (3) or increasing the shutter speed. But you should know that when you increase the shutter speed, less light will enter the camera, so you have to rely on the other two settings in the exposure triangle to make up for it.